The Morning After
by LaylaBinx
Summary: What happened the morning after Josh transformed in the apartment? My take on what followed :D H/C fluff and cuteness!


**Hello all! So I really wanted to write something from the most recent episode and I really wanted to do a morning after story so it all kinda worked out! I think Josh may be a bit OOC toward the end but I'm blaming it on the fact that he's used to waking up in the woods and not in the apartment; that's why he's so confused! No flames please! Hope you all like it! :D**

**I own nothing! ;_;**

* * *

It had been a long night...longer than any they'd spent in apartment so far. Well, to be fair, they didn't actually spend the night in the apartment, they left. Josh was in the apartment; that is, Josh's furry, ravenous counterpart was in the apartment and was probably destroying it more the longer they waited.

They'd sat on the front porch for about an hour, listening to glass shattering and wood splintering from the inside. The radio was turned up as loud as it would go, blaring above most of the noise but not all of it. If they didn't get a noise complaint by the end of the night it would be a minor miracle. Hell, if Josh didn't crash his way through a window by the end of the night it would be a miracle.

Aidan said nothing as they sat on the porch, staring blankly out into the street and just listening to the destruction inside. Sally was sitting at his feet, chewing her nails nervously and wincing every time something shattered in the apartment. She wanted to say something, ask questions, anything to take her mind off what she'd just seen, but nothing seemed to come to her. Logic had been broken a long time ago for all of them but earlier had solidified it.

Eventually, Aidan got tired of sitting outside and walked down the steps, heading off to some unknown location. Sally followed him, it wasn't like she would be going in the apartment anytime soon, and they made their way down the silent street, the mocking full moon shining down on them.

**OOOOO**

They ended up at a bar a couple blocks away, taking up a table in the back of room and sitting silently. A few women had approached Aidan, seductively asking if the seat next to him was taken. It was, Sally happened to be occupying it and was fuming that they still couldn't see her, but Aidan would just smiled politely and tell them he was saving it for a friend. The women would walk away, dejected, and Sally wouldn't be tempted to shatter another beer bottle like she had the night before.

Aidan sipping his beer silently, watching from the corner of his eye and Sally nervously picked at her leggings in an attempt to keep her mind and hands busy. "You can ask about it, you know?" He said finally, catching her eye briefly. "Its not going to offend me or anything."

She was silent for a second longer, still worrying at her leggings. "So that's it..." She said after a minute. "That's what he goes through every month? That's what happens to him when its a full moon outside?" Her voice was shaky, unsure, and Aidan nodded.

"Yeah." He said softly, setting his beer bottle back on the table and looking out across the bar. "Physically, Josh is the most human of both of us...he can eat, sleep, do human...things." He gestured vaguely with one hand but didn't elaborate. "But when that happens..." He nodded back in the direction of their apartment. "That's all he sees. He sees a monster, something that should be hunted and destroyed."

"But he has no control over it!" Sally cried causing Aidan's beer to wobble a bit on the table. "Doesn't he see _that_? Doesn't he see that he's not some vicious wild animal with a lust for human blood? Doesn't he know that?"

Aidan shrugged half-heartedly, drumming his fingers on the table slightly. "I've told him countless times, tried to reassure him. I think he tries to believe it but I don't think he does. Not completely." What he'd said at Josh's parent's house still bothered him; when Josh had mentioned staying and Aidan brought up the possibility of him losing control one say and slaughtering his whole family...it must have hit deeper than he meant it to. That broken, helpless look on the younger man's face when he'd walked in the apartment later that day nearly killed him.

"I've only seen him change once, a few months after we first met. He had to work the late shift and couldn't get anyone to cover for him and ended up being stuck in the hospital during the full moon. I got him out before he changed completely, got him away from the city limits, but he ended up changing as soon as I stopped the car. I saw everything and honestly..." There was a pause and Aidan shook his head. "I'm amazed he survives the transformation each month."

Sally looked stunned, her eyes widening as she looked at him. "What do you mean?"

Aidan frowned, looking around to make sure no one eas trying to listen in on their conversation. Well, his conversation more than anything, no one could see Sally. "When Josh transforms, it rearranges everything in his body. It moves around his organs, it reverses his joints, shortens and adjusts his bone structure...everything about him changes. The human body can only take so much trauma at any given time before it succumbs to shock. What Josh goes through every month, what that change does to him, its comparable to being hit by a train carrying an atomic bomb. The fact that he hasn't died of a heart attack mid-transformation is a miracle as far as I'm concerned."

Sally's eyes were watering, her hands now tangled in the folds of her jacket. "Oh my God...I never realized...I never thought..."

Aidan just nodded, reaching for his beer as the table began to tremble a bit. "Its not something I would wish on my worst enemy."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, both lost in their thoughts. Sally was still trying to wrap her mind around everything that had transpired, everything she'd heard. She couldn't believe she'd been so insensitive to Josh earlier, telling him she'd kill for his life and that he was lucky he had the life he did. She had no idea how wrong she was.

Aidan was bothered by his own thoughts, trying his hardest to make sure the emotions didn't show on his face. He wasn't lying when he said he was surprised Josh hadn't had a heart attack yet, in fact, if he were to be completely honest with himself, he dreaded the full moon every month for that reason. He dreaded not getting a call one morning from Josh to come pick him up from the woods or having the police show up at their apartment, somber and resigned, telling him they'd found his best friend's body on the side of the road. He hated the full moon more than anything and he hated what it did to Josh.

The night stretched on slowly after that, empty conversation filling the void as they waited for dawn. When the bar closed at 2 am, they made their way down the street, back to the apartment neither of them wanted to return to. Josh's transformations usually lasted until morning which meant they still had another 4-5 hours before he changed back. Going back inside wasn't an option at the moment but they had nowhere else to go so they simply went back to sitting on the front porch, listening to the heavy padded paws pace restlessly over the wreckage in the was nothing left to do but wait for the sun to come up so they could go back to pretending everything was normal and they were all okay.

**OOOOO**

It was a little after 5:30 when the rampage inside finally died down and the apartment went quiet. There was a long moment of silence, Sally looking anxiously between the door and Aidan, her eyes asking the question she didn't dare voice. _Is it over?_

Aidan didn't have an answer for her, he didn't know what to say in response to that question. He tried to glance into one of the windows (which were amazingly intact) but couldn't catch a clear image of his best friend. He could see the wreckage though; broken furniture, splintered wood, shattered plates everywhere. It looked like a war zone and Josh was trapped inside. Aidan ignored the part of his brain that added that it was Josh's fault the apartment looked like that in the first place.

Finally, Sally couldn't stand it anymore and stood up, making her way to the door to go inside. Aidan stopped her. "Wait." He said softly, holding a hand out in front of her. "Let me go in first."

"Why? If he's still all wolfed out then he can't hurt me. You on the other hand," Sally gestured with one hand up and down the length of Aidan's body. "He'll turn you into a chew toy."

He knew she was trying to put on a brave face, trying to act like nothing was wrong, but he also knew that deep down she was still terrified. He didn't blame her, watching your housemate turn into a werewolf was enough to shake anyone up a bit. "I just want to make sure he's okay."

There was something in his voice that made Sally stop, something that halted the protest she was forming in her head. Instead, she just nodded and stepped to the side, letting him walk into remains of their apartment ahead of her.

The inside of the apartment looked like a tornado had touched down in the living room. The couch was flipped over, the table and chairs overturned as well, and there was variety of debris on the floor: broken plates and glasses, picture frames, the contents of the trashcan and a few things from the pantry that had been pulled out and destroyed. It looked like the aftermath of a frat party on steroids.

Josh was laying in the middle of the floor, naked and disheveled. Whether he was asleep or unconsious, Aidan couldn't tell, but he was covered in plaster and what looked like flour from the pantry. The white powder clung to his hair and his skin, covering his body in a thin, dusty coat. He was half-curled on his side, one arm covering his face and the other pinned beneath him. All in all, he kind of looked like he'd been tossed out of a moving bus.

Aidan walked closer, crouching down next to the younger man and reaching out, touching his shoulder gently. "Josh?" He asked, shaking him a bit. "Josh, can you hear me?"

There was a muffled groan from under his arm and Josh twitched a bit, rolling onto his back slowly to face Aidan. He blinked, looking up at the ceiling and his vampire roommate. "Aidan...?" His voice was scratchy and hoarse from the transformation. "What-?"

Aidan was used to him being a bit disoriented after he changed back into human form, his body still trying to readjust to everything it had been through earlier. He snaked an arm behind Josh's shoulders and helped him sit up, keeping a tight grip on his as the younger man swayed a bit upon rising. "Easy...just go slow, okay? Nice and slow."

Josh blinked owlishly, his eyes trying to focus on the apartment around him. He wasn't used to waking up inside, let alone in his own apartment. The confusion was clear on his face. "Wh-" He started again, his voice breaking a bit from disuse.

Aidan let go of him long enough to grab a discarded jacket from the floor and toss it over Josh's lap. The younger man hadn't yet realized he was still naked so he was trying to prevent the sudden realization. "Stay here for a sec, okay?" He said, standing and walking into the kitchen to retrieve a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He walked back into the room to see Josh staring at the wreckage of the house like he was seeing the aftermath of an earthquake.

"Oh no..." He muttered, looking around the destroyed living room, his eyes widening more with each destroyed piece of furniture and broken dish. "Oh no...I changed here last night...I was with Nora and I ran out of time and I came back here and..." The memories from the night before came flooding back and Josh covered his face with his hands. "Oh God..." He groaned, scrubbing his hands over his face. There was a string of unintelligible words and Aidan could only make out "with Nora" before the mumbling continued.

He kneeled next to the younger man once more, handing him the bottle of water. "Josh, its fine. Its not that big a deal, we can clean up the apartment."

Josh looked at him suddenly, eyes huge. "I didn't do anything to you guys did I? I didn't wolf out on you or Sally, right?"

"We're fine." Aidan assured him, patting him on the shoulder gently. "Sally was a little freaked but we're both fine, you didn't do anything to us."

Josh seemed to visibly relax, his shoulders slumping. He was still a mess, covered in a flour and sitting naked on the floor. It didn't seem to bother either of them in the least. "I'm so sorry...I lost control and destroyed the apartment and-"

"Josh." Aidan cut him off once more. He wrapped a hand around the younger man's arm and helped him stand, the jacket still covering most of what needed to be covered. "Everything's fine. Go upstairs and put on some pants and I'll help you clean up the apartment, okay?"

Josh nodded hesitantly, his eyes still scanning the room and everything in it. It was hard to hide the look of shame on his face. Sally appeared a split second later, hovering next to the overturned couch. She surveyed the damage quickly but to her credit, the surprise didn't show on her face. She smiled at him softly. "It's not so bad, I had a roommate in college that used to throw parties that ended up looking ten times worse than this."

The joke fell weakly into the silent room and she stepped forward, offering him a reassuring smile. "You okay?"

Josh shrugged awkwardly, looking down at his nakedness and the surrounding room. "I'm naked..." He muttered after a second.

"I see that." There was so much more she wanted to say, so much she wanted to ask. She wanted to apologize, ask for forgiveness for being so ignorant to his plight. Instead, she just stepped out of his way, seeming to realize that the longer she stood there, blocking his way to the stairs, the more awkward he felt about being naked in front of her.

Josh looked back to Aidan briefly before walking toward the stairs, doing his best to wrap the jacket all the way around himself to cover everything. He brushed past Sally, blushing from the tips of his ears to his toes, and walking up the stairs.

"Hey Josh..."

The younger man looked back down at Sally and seemed to know what she wanted to say. He nodded and she smiled softly, and unspoken agreement to talk later once he was clothed and not covered in flour. Once he'd disappeared up the stairs, she turned back to Aidan looked at the destruction in the living room. "Oh boy..."

* * *

**Hehe, and we all kinda know where it picks up from here ^.^ Hope you guys liked it! :D**


End file.
